It was another battle of southern hockey at the Sommet Center tonight, this time with the Carolina Hurricanes visiting Music City. The Canes blew in with a very strong 1st period and used those two 1st period goals to propel them to a 4-2 win.
Felder’s Fickle Five:
1. Weak 1st period – The two early goals cost the Preds the game. They came out flat and paid the price for it. Thankfully the team improved more and more as the game wore on but in the end if they had came out firing the game could have gone either way.
2. Top line shows promise – Considering that Arnott was in his 1st pre-season game, Dumont has been busy with taking care of baby things at home, and the lack of time playing together that was a strong first outing for the Preds possible top line. Plenty of scoring chances and if the guys get the details of their games together it could be a force that drives the team offensively (as it should). A combined 16 shots between the linemates really put pressure on the Carolina goalies all night. This line has some promise folks…
3. Dump and Chase? – All too often I saw the forwards playing a dump and chase game offensively tonight. Towards the end of the game things got better but it was still a bit frustrating to continually see the puck dumped instead of carried over the blueline. With certain lines this works fine, but you don’t want to see that out of your top 2 lines of the night on a consistent basis at any point of the game.
4. Joel Ward – Ward is making things even more difficult for head coach Barry Trotz and Co. Making a name for himself on the PK through training camp is one thing, but showing that offensive talent by scoring a goal makes things even more interesting. Let the battle for 3rd and 4th line positions continue because Ward has had a pretty strong showing in camp and pre-season. Joel finished the night with 1 shot on goal, 4 hits (which tied for the team lead in the game), and 1 takeaway.
5. Cause for concern with the D? – I got to admit that after the first 2 periods I was getting pretty worried about what some of this defense may look like come Oct. 10th. Thankfully their stronger play in the 3rd period calmed some of my concerns but early in the night they were struggling. Missed passes, turnovers, bad positioning, etc. There were some real struggles going on that hopefully don’t carry over.
Other Notes:
• The scratches for tonight were Dan Hamhuis, Greg DeVries, Martin Erat, David Legwand, Scott Nichol, Triston Grant, and Cal O’Reilly. For Carolina, Niclas Wallin, Tuomo Ruutu, Scott Walker, Wade Brookbank, and Joe Corvo.
• 1ST PERIOD
• Line combos to start the night - Forwards: Hornqvist-Arnott-Dumont. Jones-Peverley-Tootoo. Pihlstrom-Fiddler-Smithson. Gratton-Bonk-Ward. Defense: Weber and Suter, Koistinen and Zanon, Klein and Sulzer.
• Hurricanes GOAL - 17:55 to go and the Canes tally with a blueline shot that beats Ellis mid-level stick side. A trend has somewhat emerged with opposing teams scoring from blueline shots… Goal is scored with a deflection by Brandon Sutter with Anton Babchuk picking up the assist. Canes lead 1-0.
• Hurricanes GOAL – 17:01 to go. The Canes tally shorthanded as Ryan Bayda beats Ellis five hole. Just some sloppy play in their own end and it costs the Preds. The Canes now lead 2-0.
• 14:34 to go and we have our first fight of the night. Josh Gratton squared off with Trevor Gillies. Gillies won the fight by dominating his positioning, but Gratton did get a few shots in about 3/4th of the way into this nearly minute and a half fight.
• The Carolina forwards are making our D look like Swiss cheese tonight. It’s really been stunning how easy they gain the zone and get shots. I’ve never seen so many of our D-men commit turnovers and make sloppy passes.
• 30 seconds to go and as the Canes get a shot on Ellis one of the forwards gets tripped up looking for a rebound and his skate actually hits Ellis in the mask. Very scary moment there but no harm done.
• 2ND PERIOD
• Hurricanes PP GOAL – 1:11 into the 2nd. The Preds D has trouble picking up a shot from the blueline. Babchuk’s shot actually went wide and hit the boards behind the net. The puck then went to the side of the goal where Staal was able to quickly pot the goal as Ellis had come too far out of his net and left ample room and open net behind him. Scoring line reads Staal from Babchuk and Joni Pitkanen. Canes lead 3-0.
• Predators GOAL – 12:41 to go. Weber finds Joel Ward streaking into the offensive zone. Ward then has open space against Carolina’s Cam Ward. He fakes glove side and sneaks the puck in five-hole off Cam’s right leg pad. Quite nice to see the grinder rewarded. Canes lead cut to 3-1.
• 11:39 to go in the 2nd and as expected Michael Leighton comes into net. This move had nothing to do with Cam Ward’s play but was planned before the game.
• One has tot wonder whether or not Joel Ward has a legitimate shot at this team. He is a good penalty killer, brings some physicality, and has even shown he can put the puck on net and score. He just continues to make a case for himself so it’ll be quite the interesting story to follow.
• The first weak penalty call of the year. 3:32 left and Dumont gets tabbed for hooking. Upon looking over the replay it was clear that he did put the stick against the body, but made no pulling or restricting motions with it. Just a bit ticky tacky for my tastes.
• The D tightened up a bit in the 2nd but still Carolina leads in shots after 2 with a 22-17 advantage.
• 3RD PERIOD
• Predators GOAL – 18:01 to go in the 3rd. With a delayed penalty the Preds tally as Vern Fiddler lets off a slap shot from the side boards and the puck hits the top of Leighton’s glove and goes in. Assists go to Zanon and Koistinen. Canes lead cut down to 3-2.
• 16:45 and we have a real hockey feel in the building. The Preds come very close to tying the game as Dumont and Hornqvist almost bat the puck out of mid-air into the net after missing on their 2v1 try. Then Staal gets a breakaway and Ellis makes not one but TWO stops. The best end to end action of the night by far and the crowd lets the players know how much they enjoyed it.
• 1:29 to go and Ellis comes to the bench for the extra attacker.
• Canes GOAL – 40 seconds remaining. Tootoo can’t handle the puck along the boards and Staal takes the puck from him at the Preds blueline and buries the empty netter. Canes – 4 and Preds – 2. Final
My Three Stars:
1. Eric Staal
2. Joel Ward
3. Anton Babchuk
Goalie Grade: C- – The starting goaltender tonight was Dan Ellis. Ellis stopped 26 of 29 shots faced. The first goal against him was not his fault. He was screened and the puck was slightly tipped in. The other two goals are a whole different story. The shorthanded goal was weak. The Staal tally was caused by Ellis coming too far out of the net and not being able to play the puck. Overall not a great night for Ellis, but his play in the 2nd half of the game brought up the grade just a tad.
Ref Review: A- – The crew tonight was Greg Kimmerly, Francois St. Laurent, Derek Arnell, and Michel Cormier. Just one weak penalty that I saw. Other than that a fairly called game both ways.
Quotes:
Dan Ellis on his shaky start – “Yeah the start didn’t go as well as I would have liked. The first one just banked off a knee pad and went in. The 2nd one was a bad goal. You gotta stop those ones coming down the wing. I felt like I was able to settle in after that and so did the entire team, we finished strong but didn’t get the result that we wanted.”
Ryan Jones on whether or not he is feeling the pressure with the battle at forwards – “You try not to think about it too much because the more you think about it the more stress you get and the tighter you grip your stick out there. I do my best to block it out but obviously it’s always in the back of your mind.”
J.P. Dumont on Arnott returning – “With him getting hurt early and getting sick today was pretty much our first full time together. We needed a little time but I think we did pretty good and had some great chances. We definitely had a chance to sit down together and talk and see what we like to do but I think the chemistry is definitely building.”
Arnott on his lines scoring chances despite the little amount of playing time together – “It was hard because I’ve been sick and missing quite a bit of action and then J.P. missed a little bit because he had his baby girl so we haven’t had a whole lot of time to play together and practice together because we’ve been mix matching a lot. It was nice. The 1st period was a little rough and we were just kind of reading off each other but I think as it goes on we’re going to be good. I think Horny really has a lot of vision and plays real hard and once he gets his scoring touch back he’ll be fine. He knows how to score goals and once we find our groove and chemistry good things will happen.”
Arnott on the details he is working on in these last pre-season games – “I tried to concentrate a little bit on faceoffs and defensive zone tonight. Just tried to play solid in my own zone and I knew that my legs were going to be a little bit rusty and everything but as the game wore on I got a little more comfortable and so I’ll just try to work on the little things and hopefully the bigger things will come in time.”
Trotz on what he wants the team to focus on these last two pre-season games – “I want to build from where we were in the 2nd and 3rd period. One of the things we’ve talked about is that we need to hit the season at full speed. The only way you do that is by playing 3 hard periods, executing, having a lot of detail in your game and being committed in that. Unfortunately we buried ourselves in the 1st period tonight.”
Final Thoughts:
Maybe the best part of this game is leaving knowing that the next time we return to this building it will be for games that count. Overall a real mixed night that made you worry but then made you somewhat more at ease as periods went by. The one thing I know is that this team still has no quit, even if it is pre-season. That’s the type of effort all fans want to see and they were rewarded with a hard work 3rd period.
The Predators next game is tomorrow night at Atlanta. The game will start at 6:30 pm and will be broadcast live on 104.5 the Zone with my good friends Pete Weber and Terry Crisp.
Till next time, take care.
Don’t forget to tune into the Nashville HockeyBuzz Radio show, Monday nights from 6 to 7 pm on WNSR 560 A.M. with Paul McCann and myself discussing all things Preds! Only 11 days until the premiere episode on Oct. 13th!
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